Pre-Production Guild Ball Miniatures!
Except here, the Guilds can use their instruments of work, and the streets have been replaced with a pitch. But the sound effects could still be added at any time I believe! :)
So this post is on the back of my trip to the FigureWorld Show in UK not so long ago. Where I met up with one of the co-founders behind this game called Guild Ball.
Though it was not the first time we have met, as we met earlier at Smogcon where I did get the chance to test out the alpha/beta/yet to be released as it was still in kickstarter ruleset against the Editor of Portal Magazine, Adam Parkhouse.
An exhausted Mat can be seen overshadowing the games with tidbits of how it played out etc. Have to say that it was a smashing game ( no pun intended ) and that I had squeezed out a win over Adam but only just ( and by only just I mean I wiped the floor with him.. don't listen to whatever his take on that game is :D ).
So after exchanging some mails with Mat since the first encounter, we got to talking about how to promote the pieces and his models a bit more.
Again I have seen pre-production pieces in the past while at Tommie Soule's painting class in Manchester, and Mat's partner shows up with the Fisherman Captain for Tommie to paint up.
We even had a resin version available to see the difference in quality.. have to say.. there was not much of a difference between them! Which is surprising to say the least!
But what does that have to do with now? Well.. Mat has provided me the opportunity to look at some more pre-production pieces and to give a more "consumer" view on them.. which I think is both unique and cool at the same time. Not many companies out there want people to see what their products are like before the final OK green light is given.
So in a hasty back alley styled handover at FigureWorld, I received a plastic baggie full of metal and plastic bases. And by back alley, I mean in front of the MDP stand at the show :D But you can see that they are truly pre-production by their delivery system at the moment :) Thankfully, metal stands up well when not painted in this transport form :D
A couple minutes later and I have the pieces all lined up ready for final inspection and assembly! I want to make this clear.. the photos will be raw, and rough, and straight from the desk! So no photoshop shenanigans going on here I can tell you!!!!! Just raw shots of the models, and my raw thoughts while having a look over them.
First up, and first to get some paint, is the Butcher Captain, Ox. Coming in with 4 pieces; Body, Head, right Hand, and back apron.
First issue I faced was that the metal tab at the bottom didn't fit the slotted bases that Mat provided. Not a huge deal for me as I will be cutting it off, and doing a bit more decorative bases for these guys. But still, for the average gamer, they will need to clip the bar to make it fit.
Biggest thing I don't like about this model is that the back apron piece is a separate piece to the model. In this case it has 2 small indents to line up on the body, but as you can see the gap is still present. And after putting it on, I have snapped it off a few times ( like 3 or 4 so far! ). Not the best, but could be fixed with pinning for the more adventurous souls out there.
And his arm and head fit nicely. I mucked up with the head a bit cause I wanted it to look a but more to the right.. so will need to fill the gap with some Green Stuff later on. But the hand fit like glove ( hehe.. I said glove for the hand fitting... me so funny! ). And the captain is now put together fully, and waiting to be put to a socket for painting ( which he was done but no photos yet ).
Next up is Brisket. Think of her as Kaylee from Firefly.. or at least that is the vibe I am getting from her. Expect her to have a bit of mess on her from working too hard for her captain, o captain.
Pretty straightforward piece here. The right arm being on the only thing to attach, and it was really simple. Let's see how long it lasts, but I suspect a while.
Last for the Butcher starter team is Boiler. But not the basic version, no we run high end here on Mr Lee. And snagged us the promotional, different pose Boiler! Hopefully I get the regular boiler one day to do a comparison of the 2.
This kid is like my kid.. always coming with everything except the kitchen sink. Quite a few pieces here ( Body, right Arm, left Arm, Left leg, backpack cleavers? ). He was not the easiest to put together, but I blame my fat fingers for that. As he is really small, and I went a bit overboard with the super glue accelerator ( after making sure the apron on Ox stayed still! ).
But for the pieces, they all fit quite nicely. Will be seeing how well he stays on that one arm of his jumping the goal post, but I think he will do well. Otherwise, he will receive a pin through there.
Going to be a lot of fun to paint this guy up, and more so considering how many have been passed around to some great painters and their interpretation of the models.
Then we move on to the Fisherman Starter team!
First up is Shark. The Fisherman Captain. He was my top scorer against Adam back in February, and was the man to make me fall in love with this guild. Plus his pose is pretty nifty as well.
He comes in 3 pieces ( Body, left Arm, right Arm with spear ). And honestly they go together quite well here.
Only hiccup on him at the moment is on his right foot. Not sure what is up with that there.. but something that Mat is aware of and looking to get fixed in the final versions. Might keep it on him for nostalgic reasons here though ;)
I did make the spear point upwards compared to the downward facing style from their website. Not sure why, but it might have something to do with regards to getting it to stay in place. Can't be sure on that though :)
Biggest issue I have with Shark though is that he is a pain to photograph! He is so dynamic as a character model, that it is hard to get the camera to focus properly.
Again the details on him are great, and the face is perfect. No mold lines, no flash, and no filling required! Perfect!
Next up is Angel ( or at least I think it is Angel.. I always get her and Siren mixed up! ).
Pretty straightforward here.. 2 pieces ( Body, left hand with staff ). Single spot to glue it together, but honestly it goes well, and have another spot to glue to on the back to reinforce it. Really straightforward here.
Another really clean sculpt.. and plenty of areas of skin to play with some colors on her. Going to be fun to paint up!
Last, but not least, is Siren ( or maybe Angel.. but not going to repeat that problem :) ).
She comes in 3 pieces ( Body, right Arm, and dress? ). As you can see there is some flash on this one model. But out of 6 models, this is the only one to have any! Like.. Any! Though I have to say that I was disappointed to see that the join point for the mold on the right spear was on the rope. Makes the details disappear there because of it. On the sleeve that is flat would have been better for the end users, but I can see from the casting perspective how this was needed to be done this way.
Assembly was pretty straight forward though thankfully. I can see the right arm snap off though, so I suspect I will need to pin it at some point. But the rest works nicely. And even with the dress section added, I think it is easy enough to still paint the legs behind it.
Slight gap on the back arm section, but nothing major.
And there you go.. the entire 2 starter teams built up and ready to get some paint on!
I want to make some really nice bases for them, so they will all be pinned to the bases once I figure out what to do with them. Thankfully I have the Painting Buddha Basing DVD, and a few Basing classes under my belt. So let's see what I can do to make some interesting pitches under them. But I do need to make some tests to see if my ideas will work or not though.. :D
And also.. if you want to see more about this game or to order the models cause you did not get in on the Kickstarter, then check out their website here. And also you can see the new pre-season rules that were just posted up here as well!
Expect to see some photos of Ox painted up soon enough, and hopefully the rest will follow so that I can get in some pre-season games! So that when more pre-production pieces arrive and can get some review happening!
Hope you liked this, and let me know your thoughts below!
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